It goes without saying that this post will contain spoilers for the last season of Game of Thrones! So if you haven’t seen it yet, please read no further!
Overall impressions of season 8
Season 8 has received very mixed opinions, mainly people hating how the plot lines were all tied up. Personally, I enjoyed the final season! I thought the plot lines made sense (mostly), it was well paced and was impressive TV watching.
The last episode, granted, was a bit of a let down and felt like the ending of Lord of the Rings where it was all a bit mneh, but up to that point I liked it. So there.
In particular…
Arya and the God of Light plot
Arya killing the Night King was fantastic! After a truly excellent two episodes, the first being the preparation for war: an chilling portrayal of people fuelling themselves on blind hope and coming to terms with their impending doom. And the second where the build up of how strong the Night King’s army was was certainly not over-estimated. I mean, they lost. Hard. So what a shock that Arya just up and ended it all! Moments before I thought: “wow, they’re all just going to die, aren’t they!”
But…. I don’t think it was a cop out. It was tying off the end of a 8 season plot about the God of Light, the Red Woman and Arya’s training to become a faceless assassin. The threads of the prophecy and involvement from the God were drip fed through the series and it came to a pinpoint conclusion.
I thought it was fitting that Arya simply ended the war. It needed a God, the Red Woman, the one eyed dude, Arya, the help from all the armies and luck for it to end and that to me was pretty cool.
Daenerys becoming evil
It seems weird to me that people are moaning that they wanted one of the biggest characters to have a one-dimensional personality of being the “nice one”. The signs were sprinkled from the start that she would do anything to get the Iron Throne and “break the wheel”. Remember when she killed all the slavers? Or burned those other guys alive? Or executed people just because they didn’t bend the knee? They were mainly portrayed as evil people so the viewers let her off… But she was hardly being nice about it was she?
So did she need to go that crazy and burn down the city? In the scene before with Jon Snow, she made it very clear that she needed to rule by fear. The only person left who loved her (and her him) had rejected her. Whilst on her dragon, the bells ringing, she wasn’t going mad. She was coming to terms with what she agreed with herself to do. Ok, maybe she was a bit mad… And people fed that madness, lofting her up to be the saviour of all. But it wasn’t a snap decision, it was a long, sad, decline into something she never wanted to be, but was too deluded to realise herself.
I do admit that burning innocent civilians after knowing they had surrendered may have crossed the line a bit, but you have to admit it was emotive tv!
The last Episode
So yeah, the last episode was like watching a knitting competition. It was slow, rarely made sense, had forced jokes which were super cringe and was essentially an anti-climax for a VERY long story line.
I really thought Jon was going to go full blinkered dope and stick with Daenerys in her plot to terrorise the world. Arya (and where the hell was she? What was with the horse?? Her ultimate plot line was to become Dora the explorer???). Anyway, then Arya would kill Jon (shock!), use his face (an ability she used once!) to get near to Daenerys and kill her too.
Or you know, anything else but Jon and Daenerys being inexplicably left alone, him simply stabbing her and the dragon moping off like a teenager.
I mean, how, just HOW, was Jon able to be with Daenerys for so long, armed and on his own. The chief unsullied dude rarely left her side, but thought this was the moment to take a cigarette break? I don’t mind that Jon killed her, that made sense, and it was sad how conflicted he was about doing so. But that whole scene was just very odd.
And then the dragon went full emo! Dragons are meant to be cool, not act like stroppy teenagers, breaking stuff, then storming off in a huff. If there were any doors, they would have been firmly slammed.
Also, wouldn’t it have been so much cooler if the dragon has tried to torch Jon?? Then, as Jon was a dragon boy too, could survive the flames becoming the next dragon king! That would have been awesome!
Unsullied island
I don’t have much to say about this except, bearing in mind it was just a boat of unsullied and, by their very name, none of them have willies… Just how long do they think unsullied island will last? Very bizarre.
Bran.
Fucking Bran. I mean, maybe, just maybe, there was a glimmer of a twist in his one off sentence “why do you think I’ve come all this way?”. But really? The ending of “breaking the wheel” I guess was kinda nice. But he’s such a dope. “Hmmm I think I’ll just go spaz out searching for a dragon now…”. Useless.
Ok, so yeah maybe the last season wasn’t that good now I’ve thought about it some more. I did still enjoy it though, and sometimes, much like in life, things are just what they are and things happen because they do. That WAS the ending to Game of Thrones. That IS what the characters ended up doing. You may not like it, but real life ain’t that pretty either. *Eh-hem* Boris and Trump *eh-hem*
Daddy Coder 